Mockingjay: A Different Ending
by PCS
Summary: Although this series is amazing, and I was engrossed from the start, I believe that a slightly different ending is in order.


**Note to the readers:I did not like the ending or the epilogue to the epic conclusion of the Hunger Games series. I feel as though Katniss did not get over what happened in some way, shape or form, and that the relationship between her and Peeta was left blank with a slate of coldness at the end. Although, some of this is necessary, I believe most of the readers were expecting happy. I am included in this and so I am rewriting the ending in a fashion I think it should have been taken. These are the final pages of the book Mockingjay in a mood I find better and more resolved. I hope you enjoy it, and thank you.**

**Mockingjay: A Different Ending**

Peeta and I grow back together. There are still moments when he clutches the back of a chair and hangs on until the flashbacks are over. I wake screaming from nightmares of mutts and lost children. But his arms there to comfort me. And eventually his lips. On the night I feel that thing again, the hunger that overtook me on the beach, I know this would have happened anyway. I woke up screaming to the feeling of claws scratching at my back and high pitched fever echoes from my lips. I cry a small amount as I nuzzle close to Peeta's chest. The strong arms that I fell into many times before now. This night is different than the rest I have before. The warmth began to spread from the tips of my fingers to my lower extremities. Peeta leans in close and caresses his lips into mine with a sudden fervor that takes over the moment. He is insistent and relentless but his body holds the same wrap around mine that carries the tenderness of the boy with the bread that I know and care for deeply. A small tear trickles down my cheek as I let my hands peruse his body and slowly we fall, together, into a link that isn't bound by any human means and surely cannot be measured by it. The intimacy of what we feel for each other spreads through me and finally releases. There is a sweat that pours down my body but as he lays next to me, his hands clasping mine, I feel safe and secure again. As if the world never went to darkness. That Prim, Cinna, Finnick, Mags; everyone that ever protected me was still here. I realize that only Peeta can make me feel this way. I realize that he is the only one that can keep me safe. I want to tell him everything but the exhaustion of the night enters me with a shudder of cold creeping down my spine. He presses me close and I whisper something into his naked chest. In between the words, I fall into a deep sleep.

The dream is a cloud of white smoke that shimmers in and out of darkness with a light that seems to revolve around me in a perfect circle. I am not sure what to make of it before I step forward and the ground illuminates in front of me. 12, 1, 2; each number lighting up in a row until I spin around and realize something. "This is a clock." There is a small sound that resonates behind me and I quickly rotate to the noise. My eyes widen as I stare at the figure in front of me. "Wiress."The older lady in front of me extends a hand and I desperately clasp it. Her eyes speak of solemn and unsureness but a resolve that seems resolute. Wiress smiles widely and gently rubs the top of our joined hands with a reassuring pat. "Tick, tock, the world's a clock. We may be gone but not all is lost. Tick, tock, the world's a clock. Let go of the past and understand the cost." She let's go and slips into a fog and slowly the world spins again. I turn and out comes the girl who changed everything for me.

Tears drip down my cheeks in quick succession and she comes to me in a rush. The dark skin and Prim-like appearance hold me in a flabbergasted state. I feel the warmth of her press into my chest as we hug in a moment that I never want to let go. The tears keep swarming down my cheeks and I sob loudly into her dark hair with a feverish plea, "I should have saved you Rue. I-" I choke again wanting the world to collapse but it doesn't. I feel the pain and punishment that I have grieved over since her small body went limp, and the world made no sense. The flowers that adorned her dead body appear around us and with a tiny whimper, I fall to my knees pleading in my mind that she won't go away. Rue lifts my face to her eyes with a tender tug at my chin and I slowly meet her perfectly shaped eyes. "We saved each other back in that arena Katniss. Our alliance made us one. I never blamed you. I knew eventually we would die, our alliance, and one of us would live. You did. You honored me by living." She smiles once more. The leaves and greens around us swarm her tiny body. Rue closes three fingers around her mouth and kisses them with a final show. Her fingertips press into the back of hand. She is gone and I cry once more letting sobs escape my lips yet again.

The world spins yet again and I ignore the frothy white fog around me. I bury my hands into my face to cover the obvious oozing of my nose and the uncontrollable redness that is surrounding my face. "You know, after making you into the Mockingjay, I never regretted it. Not for one minute." I suddenly gasp as my palms no longer smother my face. I slide them to cover my mouth as I gasp aloud. My numb legs seem to propel me upwards. I quiver as standing makes me knees feel as if the weight of the world is upon them. And before I fall face forward, Cinna's large and encircling arms catch me. He whispers lovingly into my ears. Soft words that pulse in my mind until I finally crush my forehead into the dark folds of his clothing.

"Why? Why are all of you showing yourselves to me? Why?" I sob into his chest with my hands clutching his spine. I feel as though I am digging into him to latch onto his scent forever.

"Because Katniss...I'm still betting on you." And just as the words hit the warm, and tear soaked atmosphere, he lets go of me. My hands reach out to try and hold on but as he pulls away. Those plain black eyes stare into my soul as the flicker of gold lights across the spinning lights. All of the people, every single person, that matters to me appears in the clock divided area. Each gives me a smile that indicates the bittersweet moments we shared and their deaths continuously flash before my eyes as the room spirals out of control.

I now stand on a dirt path that leads to the one place I never want to revisit. The President's mansion lies before me with one person sitting on its steps. My boot click across the tiled surface. From far away, the figure looks as if it is cloaked in a white aura. As I approach I begin to realize this is someone I know. The distance between us become a small gap when she turns around. A gentle beam of light emits from her pulsing surroundings and she extends her hand with the white smoke dancing across her skin in a flurry of heavenly glow. The sister that died on these very steps stands before me. An angel of sorts with a halo of yellow and gold. "Prim." She slowly nods without saying a word. I am shocked in place unsure if it is the aching in my heart or whether I should be completely stunned. My hand grasps hers and I am immediately tied into her surroundings. Everything looks white and pure in the aura. The world seems so bright and worthwhile. The contrary is what I know to be true. Her eyes gleam with a faith that I haven't seen before the Capitol assault. I gasp for breath as she pulls me closer. "Hello sis." My eyes well with a substance that never seems to leave in my dreams. I let the world disappear with a crunch of my eyes into a furrow of my eyes. This cannot be real. "Prim. I lost you. I lost you on these steps. The day. That day. That horrible day. You weren't meant to die that day."

Prim gives me a tender press as she holds her ear to my chest. The pulse from her angel-like face pours into my body and though she lingers for but a moment, I feel renewed. "Your heart still beats for me Katniss. It always has. Since the day you volunteered to be my tribute, my sister, Katniss Everdeen, has always lived for me." She stops for a moment looking over her shoulder at the now red-smeared steps. "That day I died was the day we set our country, Panem, free. I set us free Katniss. We are free."

"Prim. I am free. You are dead.. I-" I choke for air as my heart begins to feel a flit in each beat. I fall to ground my hands press against the cold tiled surroundings hoping to get any form of strength.

"No. Katniss, we are free." Prim says as the room returns to the clock it was before. And my eyes lift to see all that sacrificed their lives for me in this revolution. All that kept faith in me when I was lost. That guided my feet while I was blind.

"None of us are ever gone my sister. None of us are suffering. We live within you. You lived within us as the Mockingjay, or the other victor, or as a sister."

Prim helps me to my feet and slinks into her place on the clocks surface. I turn to see all their faces with one that is standing with a smirk upon his face. "Never give up will we?" Finnick says aloud popping a sugar cube into his mouth. And a part of me laughs at his smug return. Those natural tendencies of his.

"Always the joker huh Finnick?" I retort with a whole-hearted chuckle.

"Tell Annie, I will see her soon enough. That I love her and miss her always." He looks behind him momentarily and then stares at me. "Don't ever give up kid. Our lives were the on the line for you and for everyone who now lives free of the Capitol's oppression. I didn't put my life on the line for Peeta or you without knowing it would end up well. Don't forget, you can always find us." And with a moment he pats his strong right hand over his chest. I mimic the motion just as the world slips away, Prim gives me a fleeting smile, as do all of them, and I look just once more hoping to find everyone still standing there. It passes and all I can feel is the warm sun hitting my face.

Peeta yawns quietly as he curls me closer to his chest. His hands flatten against my sides and I look up at him with an unsure feeling in my stomach. He feels the tension in me and comments, "Is everything okay? This is the first night in some time you haven't woken up screaming."

I ponder the moment carefully twiddling my thumbs back and forth as my hands dance around in front of my eyes, "I think I will be okay. It's just hard to let go. Hard to forget what has happened." Peeta understands exactly what I mean. I can only fathom what it was like during the hijacking. To try to comprehend that the world, his memories, are all composed of lies.

"I don't believe we will ever forget. I do believe we can get through these nights. Together." His voice rouses the fire in my heart once again and I pull in closer to him. The sheets shift as my body does and I realize something. That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.

So after everything we have been through, and my night of resolves, when he whispers, "You love me. Real or not real?"

I tell him, "Real."


End file.
